At least $756,903 -- Includes lobbying expenditures from 1995-96 and contributions to the former governor's 1993 campaign

June 9, 1997

The Magnolia State has just one Indian casino, run by the Choctaw tribe, and an astounding 30 riverboat casinos -- both cruising and "dockside" (read games on boat, montstrous entertainment and lodging complex on shore) -- run by locals and by a who's who of national gambling corporations: Ameristar, Bally, Boyd, Circus Circus, Grand Casino, Harrah's. The dockside casinos have proliferated mainly in Robinsonville, Biloxi, and Vicksburg, which makes a curious reporter wonder just how much campaign money the local politicians took from casino corporations.

Unfortunately, Mississippi campaign finance records only need to be filed if the the donors total contributions to state officials total at least $500.01 ($200.01 or over for local officials). The state's consequently incomplete records are available only on paper, for 25 cents a page.

As a result of these annoying stipulations, our analysis doesn't include any money to state officeholders or candidates, with one exception: The Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger analyzed state data and found that former Gov. Kirk Fordice received almost $75,000 from gaming interests in 1993 alone -- nearly a third of his total campaign contributions that year -- and that two lucky contributors were appointed to the state Gaming Commission just months after giving to Fordice's campaign.

The Mississippi Secretary of State did give us lobbying expenditures for 1995 and 1996, which showed that gambling interests spent nearly $700,000 buttering up lawmakers in those two years alone. As always, our total represents just a small slice of the pie:

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